The Murder of Mary Alice
by kappykuo
Summary: Bella Swan led a good life; the perfect half-brother, always looking out for her, and her best friend, and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Mary Alice Brandon. That is, until Alice's murder sends the half-siblings into suicidal depression...
1. Chapter 1

**BPOV**

I walked home, home to Alice.

I was surprising her today. It was her and my brother's second year anniversary of their dating. How Jasper managed a girlfriend (fiancée after tonight), American history majors at one of the top schools for it in the country, and taking care of both him and me while still being the perfect person, I could not figure out. But I'm sure glad that he is. My half-brother was the best.

Alice was the perfect match for him. Spontaneously excited, she was the most amazing woman on Earth. Though a bit annoying at times, with her constant shopping and fear of lack of clothes, she still came through as my sister, even before she was officially part of my family.

And so I began skipping down the sidewalk, humming the wedding march loudly. A jogging man with his dog stared at me as I passed, but I didn't care. I _couldn't_ care. I was just too happy. Last night, Jasper had shown me Alice's ring, and it was beautiful.

Imagine a white-gold band with a rose-gold tulip with a diamond in the middle. Yeah. It was the perfect ring.

A bright bronze glint in the sun caught my eye, pulling my eyes to a man in my mom's garden. My cheeks reddened.

_That_ man was Edward Masen, our gardener. A bit of an odd job for someone as built and beautiful as him, but I guess I'm not one to tell people how to live their lives. I could just barely see his piercing green eyes peaking out from under his disheveled hair. I'd been mesmerized the first time I'd seen him working, and I'd done nothing but shy away. Pathetic, isn't it? But, I didn't know him, and he probably didn't know who I was or if I even existed.

He turned to look up at me, at which point I promptly turned my eyes back to the sidewalk, and eventually up to the front porch of my five-story monster of a house. I took three deep breaths before entering

"Hello?" I called, as I normally did. I locked the door behind me and set my purse on the entryway table. "Anybody home?"

"In here, Bella!" A slightly hysteric Alice called from the kitchen. She was probably stressing about what to make Jasper for their anniversary. Bless her heart, though she couldn't cook for her life.

I sighed, trying to contain myself, and pranced into the kitchen.

"How—" I began cheerfully, but stopped dead in my tracks, the smile wiped clean off my face, when I caught sight of her predicament. I screamed _bloody murder_.

"Shut up!" The man shrieked, clamping a hand over my mouth and pointing his pistol at my head.

"Bella!" Alice began to jump over to help me before the man turned the gun to her.

"One step and you die." He growled menacingly. He jumped when the front door opened and footsteps frantically echoed through the house.

"Bella? Alice?" I paled when I heard Jasper's yells. He must have heard me scream.

"Jasper, in her—" Alice was cut off by a bullet sliding through her head. I screamed again, though it was muffled by the man's hand.

"_ALICE!_" Jasper appeared in the doorway, sobbing on his knees. Tears slid down my cheeks at an alarming rate, as if I would soon be dehydrated.

I could see black spots in my vision, but I did know that the man was gone before I had a chance to hit the floor.

**EPOV**

Just another afternoon fixing Mrs. Dwyer's garden. The sun was out, the skies clear, beautiful Bella skipping down the street, humming the wedding march. My heart froze for a second before I noticed she didn't have an engagement ring on her finger.

Pathetic, isn't it? Watching the same amazing woman waltz right you by every single day, wanting—needing—to talk to her, to get to know her, and all you can do is hide behind the corner of her house, too nervous to confront her. Nervous she'd laugh in your face, that she'd fire you, even though it was her mother that hired me.

I sighed heavily and went back to my work. I was weeding the rose bushes today. Brilliant red blossoms were sprouting from the green masses of thorns, so I had to wear gloves.

I strolled over to the gardening shack in the backyard. I literally had to hold my head to keep from looking into Bella's house. But I couldn't help but see a shadow of a man slinking into the kitchen through an open glass door and point a gun at a woman inside. My hands automatically clutched my cell phone, though I knew I would not be able to dial anything. That woman could be Bella, and no matter what I couldn't let Bella die, no matter how non-existent she knew me to be.

"Alice Brandon, put down the knife and step away from the counter." I heard a masculine voice command as I crept closer to the glass door. The faint _click_ of a loaded gun sounded and everything went quiet.

Except when the front door opened.

"Hello?" Bella's voice rang out. I took in an involuntary breath as I mentally cursed her for basically shouting out to the world she was home.

Alice seized the opportunity to speak when the man was distracted. "In here, Bella!"

A moment later, Bella came smiling into the kitchen, though she screamed once she caught sight of the man. I got ready to jump in front of her, but somebody caught my left ankle, sending me to the ground. I growled and twisted around to see my attacker.

A rather large man towered over me as I lay on the ground. Even though I couldn't see his coloring or features, I _did_ notice how muscular of a silhouette he had. Not a problem.

I hooked my foot around his shin carefully and tugged, sending him backwards to the grass. He began to pull out a gun from his pocket, but I kicked it out of his hand with no hesitation.

Another person ran past me from out of the kitchen and into the woods. I followed, sprinting as fast as I could. I didn't sop to think about what he might have done to Bella or the woman in the kitchen, or anybody else in the house, I just knew he was going to pay for it.

And, completely to my surprise, I tripped. _Again_. This time, landing flat in the mud.

I felt a heavy weight being flung onto my back, forcing all air out of me, and—

**A/N: Hope you like the new story!**

**Okay, I know you must all be thinking (for those of you who have read my other stories) that I can't seem to finish any thing I start. I get it. But sometimes, I just get writer's block, and this time will be no different.**

**No worries,  
Kylie M. **


	2. Chapter 2

**BPOV**

_Bella… Bella… Bella…_

Somebody just calling my name. Why couldn't they just leave me sulk in my depression? Why didn't they let me sleep? Sleep in a dark void of nothing. A dark void where I wasn't bound to Earth in any way, shape, or form, where I could forget about my life and everything in it.

"Bella. Up. Now."

I reluctantly rose at the sound of my half-brother's dead voice. For only sharing half of our genes, we were so alike. Dead. Empty. Lifeless. Why wouldn't we be? I had lost a sister, and Jasper had lost a soul mate. We had perfectly good reasons to be like this. "Mom's going to be up here in a few minutes to make sure we haven't cut ourselves again."

I sighed and sat up in my bed. The gray-white covers ruffled slightly around my thin figure, a result of two months' worth of eating as little food possible. I mean, what's a girl to do, if her mother locked her out of the kitchen? Away from the knives, yes, but away from the food. Not that I minded. Just another form of physical pain to rival my emotional stress.

Jasper had exited our room and gone downstairs while I was mulling the morning over; I could hear the faint squeaks and cracks of the stairs and floorboards flexing under his feet, along with the over-cheery greeting of our mom in the kitchen.

While I had the room to myself, I slipped into the bathroom. I locked the door out of habit, not for the untrue fact someone would peek at me. Mom was a girl, and hello, my _mom_, and Jasper was my _brother_. That'd just be wrong.

Stripping down, I adjusted the water to a scalding hot and stepped in, my skin instantly going red from the heat. My eyes closed in partial relaxation, I reached blindly for my strawberry shampoo, poured a large glob on the palm of my hand, and massaged my scalp and large quantity of thick hair. Rinsing, I instantly put on my conditioner. After a few more minutes in the shower, I got out and dried myself.

But I winced as my towel passed over my cuts. The two deep knife wounds that nearly went to the bone on my left shoulder were still tender from last week, and spilled over with puss and an oozing liquid whenever I picked at it. Jasper tried to help me kick the habit, but I just kept picking. And now there would be scars. Forever reminding me…

A hand knocked sharply on the door, startling me.

"Isabella Marie Swan, if I find _one_ trace of bleach or blood in that bathroom, you are going _right_ back to rehabilitation!" My mom warned, and stomped off again. I waited until she was out of earshot to move again.

I wrapped the towel tightly around my body and turned to the mirror to brush and dry my hair. But I broke down instead.

My once chocolate brown eyes were dull. My skin was so pale you'd think I'd never seen sunlight in my twenty years of living. I must admit, I looked fragile, like a dying butterfly or wilting daisy. An unhealthy gray tinge to my body made me look somewhat like a zombie. My long reddish brown hair was black in its damp stage.

If it wasn't for that soulless man, I wouldn't be here right now, this broken. I'd be somewhere in southern California, awaiting the arrival of Jasper and Alice from their honeymoon. But, Fate's not that kind, is it? It just has to make things get in the way. Always.

My hand hovered over my razor for a second, but in the end I huffed and got dressed in shades of a greenish gray (Mom would kill me for wearing black). I was just walking out my bedroom door when my mom appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Bella, finally!" She grabbed my arm gently and tugged me down the stairs to the kitchen, where Jasper was munching on some toast, his eyes distant and empty. He gave no reaction when the shrill ring signified a phone call. Mom bustled off to get it.

"I was thinking maybe we would go out today, maybe restock on some music." I offered monotonously, choosing my words carefully. I tried to avoid anything that Alice would say, for Jasper's sake.

Jasper lazily turned his eyes to me, blinked slowly once, and nodded his head, before turning back to his toast. "Yeah. Anything to get Mom off our backs." He gave me an understanding and thankful smile, small and pitiful as it was. It still made me proud that I made him do that.

"Oh, Rosalie! That's wonderful!" My mom gushed in the kitchen. Rosalie was Jasper's cousin, who lived just a few hours' plane ride from here. "When's the date?"

Mom talked excitedly some more while I got my breakfast ready; a bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice. Jasper and I ate in silence until Mom burst into the kitchen, a wide and hopeful smile on her face.

"Good news!" She shouted. "Rosalie and Emmett are getting _married_!"

I inhaled sharply, but not because of the shock. My eyes flew to Jasper. I could see the tears already forming in his sky blue eyes.

"Jasper, come on. Let's go." I said hurriedly. I gripped his arm, half-pulled him out of his seat at the kitchen table, and pulled him to the entryway before going back to scold Mom. When I saw her, she was completely oblivious.

"Mom, how could you? How could you mention _that_, of _all_ things, around Jasper?" I pleaded angrily. Mom just stared wide-eyed at me. "Do you honestly see how much pain he's going through? It's only been four months since…"

I trailed off, traitor tears falling down my face as I thought of Alice and the day she was murdered. The look on that man's face, the manic happiness and fulfillment in his blood-thirsty eyes. It was disgusting, and the memory brought shivers down my spine.

"How could you be so inconsiderate? To Jasper _and_ me?" My voice broke. "I'm happy for Rosalie, but cut us some slack!"

With that, I stormed out of the house, slamming the particularly heavy front door behind me. Without hesitation, I got into my old red truck and sighed as I closed the door. Jasper looked at me with apologetic eyes and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"It's alright, Bella." He said quietly. "She didn't mean to do it."

By then I was breaking down, crying my eyes out to drench my hands, arms, and most of my shirt. I could vaguely feel Jasper embracing me, shaking himself, but I could really only feel the heaving sobs coming from my chest.

"Bella, if we stay here any longer, Mom's coming out to get us." Jasper warned in a low voice. I looked up to see Mom peeking out from between the curtains. As soon as she caught my glance, she disappeared again. "Are you okay to drive?"

I bit my lip. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

I started the car, ignoring the thunderous engine roaring at me, and began the bumpy road down our long drive way.

Jasper and I were staying with my mom in her cabin near Forks, Washington, a long ways away from her mansion in southern Maine. It wasn't as big, only two small stories, and only had two rooms, each with their own bathroom. We were only staying there until the end of September, when we planned to go back to California for college.

Jasper had wanted to go to Alaska, somewhere cold and bleak like his new personality. But I got him to abandon the idea, on the condition that I would go with him to the college of his choice (in a warm, inhabited area). I was the only one Jasper would really talk to, and vice versa, though I tended to ramble when someone made me angry.

As we endured the last pothole on the dirt drive way, I turned onto the highway towards Port Angeles. Not many cars were out on the roads, mainly for the simple facts of it being ten o'clock in the morning on Tuesday morning.

"So, what did you say to Mom?" Jasper asked, almost with no interest at all, but he got it instantly when I didn't answer.

"I'll just be glad when we're back at school. I can take anymore of her slip-ups without going insane." I muttered, half-hoping Jasper wouldn't hear. He did. He turned his face to look out the window at the green blurs of passing scenery.

"Why do you still have this thing?" Jasper whined after a few minutes of silence. I took a brief glance at him. "I can still distinguish individual leaves we go past."

I frowned. "Why do you have to insult my car?"

"Bella, you're my sister, and I want you to have the best." Jasper started, giving me a surprising but sincere smile. "And be honest; this lump of rust is not the best. We're going car shopping after music."

With a groan, I said, "Jasper! Updating our collection is going to take _enough_ money!"

"But, my sister needs the best." Jasper insisted.

"But I don't _want_ the best!" I whined like a five-year-old. Jasper chuckled; a sad, unused sound that sounded foreign to his lips. Even Jasper seemed surprised at his actions.

"But it would mean so much to me." Jasper whispered so sincerely, I actually thought he meant it. I took a quick glance at his eyes, which gave me all the answer I could ever need.

"Fine." I huffed, defeated. "But nothing to expensive. No extra persuasion."

Jasper groaned and leaned back in his seat. "Fine. But no _within reason_."

My hands tightened around the steering wheel. 'Within reason' was my crutch, my _reason_ to deny things. Without it, I couldn't… do anything. I was just as helpless against without my 'within reason' as I had been against Alice on one of her shopping sprees.

The rest of the loud car ride was spent in a comfortable silence, though I could feel Jasper's peppered anxiety, as I was sure he could feel mine. We just haven't been out and about for a while. We basically abandoned our social lives at the beginning of the summer, once we weren't forced to use them everyday. But, how awkward would it be if we saw anyone we knew again?

Jasper directed me through the parking lot to the entrance nearest to Best Buy. Once we procured a spot, we headed inside.

The blast of sound nearly made me deaf.

My hands automatically cupped over my ears to block out the loud noises of music, games, and videos playing, as I saw Jasper do the same. We exchanged a worried look, telling me that we both underestimated how much being isolated from the world had an effect on us.

"Jasper." I mouthed. "What do we do?"

He jerked his head to the door, and I followed him outside, which seemed oddly quieter now.

"Jasper, we can't listen to music in _that_!" I exclaimed.

"I didn't think _that_ would happen." He whispered, shocked. "I never knew hearing so little could have such an effect."

"Let's walk around for a bit." I suggested. "We might be able to adjust to so many people."

Jasper nodded and we set off through around the rest of the mall, through hordes of unmoving people that were quickly testing my patience. The unmoving part, and the more than a few passers-by gaping at Jasper and me.

"Why are they looking at us like that?" I asked Jasper after a few more minutes of walking through the sea of stares.

Jasper was about to answer when I caught sight of a T.V. store on my right, showing a picture of me, Jasper and… Alice. My eyes flew to Jasper again, whose face was contorted with emotional agony as he stared at the picture. A tear crept its way down his cheek.

"… and today marks the 4-month time period since a tragedy in southern Maine, including the murder of Mary Alice Brandon and the disappearance of Edward Masen…"

My jaw dropped. _Edward_, my _gardener_, disappeared at Alice's murder?

"… police authorities have done all they can to find Masen, as he is not presumed dead anymore, due to a new lead found by a Jacob Black, age 19. Black says he was walking back from his job in Port Angeles just earlier this afternoon when he caught sight of a man, Edward Masen, being dragged out of an alleyway and into a black Mercedes, license plate number 473-FRX. If you see this…"

Somebody, Jasper I think, tugged me roughly away from the window of the T.V. store and quickly through the mall. Whoever was guiding me practically shoved the other shoppers out of the way. I could hear him grunting as he elbowed through the crowds, but I couldn't see him. I was too concentrated on the cogs turning in my head, trying to see why a _murderer_ would kidnap a _gardener_.

**EPOV**

I don't know how long ago it was that I had been forced into the back of a car. The only sound that had filled my ears was the faint shouting of a man. No, not a man; a teenage _boy_ that had spotted my captors and me. I couldn't warn him to leave and run; I was too weak. My lips were cracked, my throat was dry, and my skin was so littered with cuts, bruises, and scabs that its pale tone was barely visible. My hair must have been matted and dirty beyond recognition. They made sure of that. They didn't want anyone to find me. To recognize me. They just wanted me to disappear to the rest of the world beside themselves.

Four months ago, I had made the biggest mistake of my entire life. Running after the murderers was foolish and reckless, and how did that fare? Now I'm being fed just enough to keep alive, enduring torture everyday, not knowing who it was that they're target at Bella's house was. I had no idea if the one person I was supposed to protect was the victim.

I groaned, partly from the searing pain all over my body. I shifted and the warm metal of handcuffs cut further into my skin and I bit my tongue hard to keep from crying out. I'd been silent these past months, and a bit of metal in an infection was not about to break that streak.

Well, not that I _could_ have screamed. They had gagged me with the most disgusting rag, covered in my bile from over the past few months. Sometimes I wonder if they deliberately give me things like that just to hear me speak. I hadn't broken my unspoken promise, and their efforts had doubled, no— _tripled_ over the past few days. They were determined, and I knew I was going to die under their wrath. Soon.

I hope they hadn't killed the boy that spotted us. He was my only hope.

**A/N: Like a hypocrite, I like stories that have relatively long chapters. A.K.A.: Not mine. All my other stories have incredibly short chapters, and I'm trying to change that with this one. The chapters will get longer.**

**No worries,  
Kylie M.**


	3. Chapter 3

**BPOV**

Jasper had gotten us to the car before we broke down. Though I was still in a daze, tears fell down my face and soaked me shoulder, that one courtesy of Jasper. This was the first time he'd cried since the… murder, and I hoped this was the last. It was almost physically painful to see, or even know, that Jasper was crying. As a younger sibling, even if we don't share _all_ of the same genes, I looked up to Jasper, and when he broke down like this, it was like there was no hope at all.

My phone rang a few times; both ours did. And we both knew it was probably our mom, thinking so surely that we had finally gone over the edge. She probably saw whatever station was playing that news clip, and got worried about us. Always on the defensive. Bets are on whether or not she crashes all things supporting the news until this all dies down.

For the twentieth time, Jasper's phone rang. He groaned, put on the emotionless mask he always wore, and answered.

"Mom? Yeah, we're okay. We're going to be about for a bit longer." His voice sounded more dead than usual. "No, we're fine. I'll keep her away from that. Yes."

Without saying good-bye, he hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. He picked me up by my arms gently and moved me into the passenger's seat while he slid into the driver's.

"We're going to the dealership." Jasper stated shakily over the roar of the engine as he started my car. "It's still your birthday and I'm not going to let you go without celebration."

My head popped up. What was the date…? September 13th. A Friday, at that, how cliché. Damn, no wonder Jasper was actually smiling today.

"Jasper, no. We should go home. Mom's worr—" I started with new-found nervousness.

"She knows nothing of my plans, but I told her we're going to be out for a bit." Jasper sprouted a sly smile, watery as it was, and he sped out of the parking lot as fast as my ancient truck would allow. We left an orchestra of honks and beeps behind us. That's my Jasper.

Luckily, my truck's top speed is a whooping… 55 miles an hour. Speed demon, isn't it? Considering it's old enough to be my grandfather's car… I'm just lucky it runs.

Not even ten minutes later had Jasper pulled up to a very expensive-looking car dealership. My jaw dropped, much to my misfortune, at how completely beautiful and stylish they were. But I noticed one thing—

Not one of them was the same brand.

And then I noticed that nobody else was here.

And then that we were in what looked like a car show.

And last, Jasper's torturous smile directed at me while he waved to a man, standing in front of it all. I recognized him as… gulp… my mom's car dealer. And my mom was a near billionaire. Put the pieces together, and you get a very expensive, European car that has yet to come out in the U.S. and a very large bill.

"Jasper, that's not who I think it is, is it?" I asked

"Oh, it's _exactly_ who you think it is." Jasper sneered playfully. I shoved him back, causing him to hit the window. It cracked. "Oh, nice going, Bella. Now we're _really_ going to have to get you a new car."

I groaned.

"Come now, o sister of mine." Jasper said, jumping out of the truck and striking a heroic pose. For the first time in a while, I laughed truthfully. "For we have a quest. A quest for the holy grail!"

I kept on laughing, even earning a few chuckles from Jasper, but all that disappeared when he knocked on my window. I glared at him with all my hate, pulling it from all my memories. He held a stern face for a few seconds before breaking out laughing. And somehow I still managed to hold my glare.

"Bella. It's a gift. I'd be hurt if you didn't accept." Jasper gave a pitiful smile once more before tugging my door open and tossing me over my shoulder before I could latch myself onto the seat.

"Jasper! Let me _go_!" I shrieked after a few seconds. I was actually in shock that he would do something so brotherly, not only in front of anybody, but just less than an hour after being reminded of Alice's death. He really must be dedicated to giving me a good birthday.

"Ah, Mr. Swan!" The car dealer, Mr. Elan, greeted Jasper from behind me. "So nice of you to keep your appointment."

"Couldn't you have at least chosen a less…" Jasper trailed off, and then started again. "The car show scared Bella."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I needed to get ready for this afternoon." Mr. Elan snapped, losing some of his cheery outlook. "But I really have to finish getting ready, so if you'll just come here please…"

Jasper set me down and grabbed my shoulder tightly to make sure I wouldn't run away. We followed Mr. Elan through the silvery white dealership. Our footsteps echoed through the halls and rooms, but nothing whispered back their presence, telling me that this place was deserted.

"So, how many cars are you showing today?" Jasper asked disinterestedly.

"Twenty-five, or so. More arrived this morning." Mr. Elan said proudly. "Saab is paying a lot for this, since their cars make up most of my showcase. There are also a few custom made ones. That are considerably more aerodynamic than factory-line ones, but their frames are very intricate and require hand-made parts and can't be assembled in a factory. They are by far the most expensive but best."

"I didn't ask for a lecture." Jasper said politely. Mr. Elan fumed. "I just want Bella to have her birthday present."

Mr. Elan's eyes tightened as he showed us to a separate part of the large showing hall. Something jingled from within his pocket as he pulled an object out and handed it to Jasper, who pressed it into my hand. They were keys, with a Volvo logo on it.

I looked up from my feet to see a shiny silver Volvo parked beside a pedestal. Pulling Jasper with me, I examined the interior, with was a dark navy blue leather. But what really caught my eye was what was on the dashboard. On the speedometer. It was the last little number that said—

"Two hundred miles an hour?" I spun on Jasper, who smirked.

"I had the company personalize it." Jasper said between his teeth, but that was only to keep from laughing at me expression. I admit, I must have looked funny, in my state of smiling at Jasper for getting me a car, glaring at him for the same reason, and being shocked that he had it personalized.

"You _really_ shouldn't have." I scolded him half-heartedly. And then I hugged him. "But thanks anyway."

"Anything for my sister." Jasper said calmly. "And to think; 20's a big birthday. Just one more year until you can drink."

I laughed and squeezed Jasper once more before letting go.

"How are we getting both cars home?" I asked.

"I'm driving your old truck to the…" Jasper gauged my expression before continuing. "Dump."

I clenched my teeth together to keep from gasping, but that didn't stop my wide eyes. I had had that truck since I got my license, and I hadn't been planning on letting it go after four years of good service.

"Bella, you have a new car now." Jasper pleaded. "And the truck's going to die in a time measured only in days. It's time you let it go."

He turned on his heel and ran off in the other direction before I could yell at him again, but it was only until after I heard a door close in the distance that I looked back at the Volvo.

It _was_ nice.

I opened the door and sat down in the driver's seat, my hands on the wheel.

It _was_ comfy.

I groaned. Why did Jasper have to know me so well?

Closing the door and putting my seat belt on, I turned on the ignition, expecting to hear a thunderous roar echo through the showing room, and was quite surprised to hear a soft purr emitting from the engine, almost like a happy cat.

A light tap on the flimsy gas pedal jolted me forward. The speedometer momentarily spiked up to 60mph before settling back down at 0. Even more carefully, I supplied the tiniest amount of pressure to the sensitive pedal and the Volvo began inching forwards. A little more weight had me going at 10 miles an hour.

The wall at the end of the room opened up like a garage door, allowing me access to the parking lot. I waved to Jasper timidly upon seeing him climbing into my suddenly less-appealing lump of rust. Compared to my new _Volvo_, what wouldn't be?

I pulled out of the parking lot and drove around town for a test drive of the car. I quickly got used to the speed, as much as I hated to admit it, and it actually felt nice to be able to go the speed limit without hearing your engine whining.

The freeway called to me, and I instantly answered that call. After a few minutes, I realized that nobody else was there, as far as I could see, and I decided to floor it. But going 175 mph in less than twenty seconds is more than a little scary. And a car was coming.

I slowed down to the legal speed limit of 60 mph as I neared the car. Curiously, I looked at its license plate. My mother and I had always tried to find cars that were out of state.

It was a car from Maine. I would know these things.

Its number was 473-FRX.

It was a black Mercedes, shining in the sunlight.

**EPOV**

After a while, I gave up hope that a car would notice this one. My captors had made a very clean getaway, and this would be no different. No doubt they had taken care to go onto the least populated highways during the least populated hours.

I had tried to sit up against the door, as a way to pass time. The strategy of trying to get up while taking care to not agitate my wounds would keep my mind busy, my protesting body screaming in pain keeping me going. Besides, the cool glass of the window would do wonders to soothe my facial wounds.

Carefully, I pressed my left leg down, ignoring the ferocious fire in my fractured bone. I could practically _feel_ the bone rubbing against its other, broken half, threatening to break. I hissed under my breath at the pain.

With so little energy it even surprised me, I heaved myself to a sit, and collapsed against the window and door with a soft thump. My eyes flew to the men in the front two seats to make sure they didn't hear it, but they were still arguing. I relaxed, hoping for sleep to take me forever. I couldn't go on like this. Not when I was in pain every waking moment. Not when I was dead to the world, never to be found and only to be tortured.

The soft hum of an engine crept into my ears. It sounded like a purring cat, something I hadn't heard in so long. I remembered Christmases with my extended family, and how they would sometimes bring their black and white cat Sylvester to play. I always got sick.

In the next few seconds, a silver gleam appeared behind me, presumably the car, but the men still argued, and it wasn't like I was going to alert them to this person.

The hum was louder now, and the car pulled up by my window.

I dragged my eyes up to look at the driver, and was stunned to see a woman.

Not any woman, oh no. This was Bella.

Her beautiful brown eyes locked to mine, stunned, but I'm sure mine mirrored their shock. She mouthed 'Edward,' and I knew she remembered me. I let a hopeful but considerably weak smile take over my worn features.

"Hey!" I was startled out of my sliver of hope when the man in the passenger seat yelled out, breaking the argument he and his companion had. He had spotted Bella. My heart stopped momentarily when I saw him reaching for his handgun.

"_NO!!_" I screamed, though it was muffled by the filthy rag in my mouth. But, where I had found the energy to even speak was beyond me. Spazzing out, I aimed a high kick the seat in front of me, the passenger seat, with my good leg, which sent it pressing forward. There was a sharp thump as the man's head hit the airbag, which went off. I heard a snap.

Meanwhile, the gun he had been holding slipped, aiming it at me. Another jerk of the dead man's body in the front seat set it off, and the bullet hit me in my side, just below the ribcage. I was at least thankful for that; I didn't want a broken rib or bone in addition to a bullet wound. But I still screamed.

A stench entered my throat, one that I recognized as the bile-coated rag in my mouth. Cringing in disgust, I forced it out of my mouth with my tongue, nearly puking again at the taste of it, but fresh air was worth it.

Taking one last look at the driver, who was struggling to stop his swerve, I kicked the dead man's belt, hearing the jingle of the handcuff keys. I could feel blood trickling down my side, stinging my skin with its heat, and my limbs losing some of their feeling, but I maneuvered the tip of my ragged shoe around the keychain from outside his pocket until I could see a gleam of cold silver peaking out.

I was faintly aware of the blurred landscape, signifying a race. Out of the corner of my eye, Bella's silver car was keeping up easily, while still keeping that feline purr smooth as silk.

_Almost there_, I thought upon seeing a flash of striking green. A sign. Literally. We were getting close to a town. Balancing the key ring on the tip of my shoe, I carefully brought it closer to me, and then I dropped it on the seat, where my hands picked it. The driver swerved to the left, almost making the keys go down the crack between the backseat and the door, but I caught them, much to my relief.

Freedom was not slipping away this time.

**A/N: Should something bad happen? Personally, I thought that getting Edward back was too easy this way...**

**Review or PM me to let me know what should happen!  
Kylie M.**


	4. Chapter 4

**BPOV**

Did I ever think I'd be in a car race with a murderer and kidnapper, driving a Volvo at 200 miles an hour, down a deserted highway to Forks, Washington, on my birthday?

Uh… _no_.

Did I ever think I'd even _dream_ about bashing into a car with my new birthday present?

Not really.

So, what do you do in a situation like that? Go away and flee to the police, especially when the guns come out? Leave your crush to die? Or do you try and chance it against all odds to get him back? From the discoloration of his face, he had been through too much for one man, and nobody should be subjected to more of that when there was a possibility he could escape.

There was a gunshot and my eyes went to Edward, who cringed in pain. For a second, I thought he was dead, but he resurfaced again with a look of pure concentration on his face. I though he was trying to read somebody's mind before I saw his foot in the window, holding a small, glinting metal object up at his shoulder's height. He dropped them behind his back, and I assumed they had handcuffed him, the monsters. The black Mercedes jerked and the driver swerved, and Edward breathed a sigh of relief.

The Mercedes swerved again, this time bashing into my side of my Volvo. Luckily, the airbag didn't go off. That would have hurt, in more ways than one.

I struggled to slow down in time for a turn, and nearly went into the barrier when I did. By the time I was at a reasonable speed and across the turn, the Mercedes was considerably farther from me. I prayed to god and slammed my foot on the gas. Was Jasper like a psychic, or something?

I quickly caught up to the Mercedes, clipping one of the lights and breaking it. The car swerved once more before righting itself. As I came level with the driver, I saw he was beginning to panic.

Edward, on the other hand, was rubbing his swollen, discolored wrists with a look of accomplishment and pain. Weird combination, but totally accepted, at the moment. After a few moments, he looked pointedly at me and began attacking his door's lock. He pointed to the back door on my side.

He wanted to jump.

My mouth dropped open and I instinctively shook my head. He gave me puppy dog eyes and opened his door. His bronze hair was so covered with dirt and grime that it barely blew in the wind, but the beautiful metallic glint was still there.

I groaned and opened the backseat. Edward crouched at the edge and took a frightened look at the driver, who saw what we were going to do and began swerving. I inhaled sharply and screamed as Edward lost his balance and fell onto the road.

**EPOV**

Curse my fractured leg to the planes of Oblivion. I would have been able to make that jump, even with my sudden lack of balance, if I had full use of my limbs. But, when your wrists are infected, at least one of your arms sprained, and you have a fractured leg and many other wounds in the process of healing on their own, you're bound not to get very far.

Thankfully, I hit the ground rolling, and on my left side. I heard innumerable cracks and felt large and piercing stabs of pain course through my veins like fire, but I didn't die. The pavement on the road chaffed my skin through my ragged clothes, rubbing it raw. I ground my teeth in the pain so hard that tears began to gather at the corner of my eyes. Never before had I cried because of a wound, but this just hurt too much.

Red spots began encompassing my vision, but I realized that was my splattering blood scattered in a trail behind me. The smell reached my nose and I felt stomach acid rise in my throat. This was not the time to vomit, but I couldn't help it. A sickly green accompanying the blood made it look like everything was trapped in a demented Christmas from Hell.

I twitched before everything went black.

**BPOV**

"Edward! _NO!_" I screamed and forced the steering wheel in a hazardous U-turn. The Mercedes' driver didn't notice, but rather kept speeding away.

My phone rang just as I saw a lump of horrifying red on the cement.

**JPOV**

I stared at the clock on the news channel emotionlessly, waiting for the purr of Bella's new car to come into the driveway. She should have been home half an hour ago, but I hadn't told Mom this. Knowing her, she would just freak out, and I didn't want my, possibly, only surviving family member hysterical and insane.

Bella dead. The though was unbearable, especially since Alice. If she died, I think I would follow soon after. I had never been close to my mother, her being an international model and me being a history major in Maine. My dad was dead, from a heart attack, and Bella's dad was just gone. He divorced Mom _years_ ago, just a few months after my half-sister was born. I had been three, so I didn't clearly remember any father figure in my life at all.

Growing up, I had guided Bella. She was a better friend than any of my girlfriends, or school friends. Only Alice could compete with her, but Bella hadn't minded. She had embraced Alice as her own sister just weeks after they had known each other.

With Alice's death, I wouldn't be able to cope with Bella's. We had known each other too long, and were too close.

I wiped away a tear creeping down my cheek. I didn't want Bella to die. I didn't want her to kill herself. I know that I had seriously considered suicide, and Bella was just as close to Alice as I was, but still. I was just beginning to come out of my emotionless shell for her birthday. I didn't want to regret that.

I finally got impatient and picked up my cell phone.

It kept ringing, until it went to voicemail. I began to worry.

"This just in: what looks like an innocent highway race identified as a deadly rescue attempt." The news reporter said seriously. A traffic cam clip of the highway from Port Angeles to Forks showed two blurs, a black and a silver.

They played it again, this time slower, and zoomed up on the two cars. One was a Volvo. _Bella's_ Volvo. I let out a shaky breath.

"Earlier today, a sighting of the abducted Edward Masen was reported in the Port Angeles area. A black Mercedes was identified to be owned by his captors, and it is now being 'raced' by a silver Volvo, identified as Isabella Swan's."

I began to hyperventilate.

"Spotted by local traffic cams on the highway to Forks was a rescues attempt by Isabella Swan. As we can see, Masen had been prepared to jump cars before falling out of the Mercedes. Ambulances and authorities are already on their way."

My mouth dropped open and I quickly dialed Bella's number again, shocked, and scared for her life. She was racing Alice's murderer.

_Shit._

**BPOV**

I slammed on the brakes. They squealed as my car skidded to a stop a few yards from Edward, who twitched every once in a while.

My phone rang again, but this time I actually answered it. I looked at the screen briefly, _Jasper_. Letting out an exasperated breath, I answered it at the same time I opened my door.

"Bella, what the _hell_ were you _thinking_?" Jasper practically screamed into the phone. He tried to be angry, but I could hear the brotherly love and worry in his voice. At least my little stunt gave him _some_ emotion.

"Out for a drive?" I tried. I groaned when I smelled blood, and nearly threw up at the scent on vomit. "Oh, Edward." I cried softly, kneeling beside his unconscious body. I completely forgot about my cell phone.

"Is he alive?" Jasper asked cautiously, the anger evaporating from his voice. I put my hand over Edward's heart, which was thankfully still beating.

"Yes." I panted with relief through my mouth. But that was short-lived. "He's bleeding too much, though, and he might have broken most of his bones."

"How fast were you going when he fell?"

I ignored my curiosity at how much he knew and answered. "Top speed."

"Wow. I thought it would be years before you went that fast, much less got used to it." Jasper chuckled humorlessly. "But an ambulance is on the way. The traffic cameras got it. I just watched the entire chase on the news."

"Thank God." I whispered to myself. I got up and carefully pulled Edward out of his growing pile of blood and bile, clenching my teeth at the smell. Half of his ribcage was partially collapsed, giving his body a gruesome appearance. His grimy shirt and jacket were torn open on his left side, showing me the tip of some broken ribs. Tears poured out of my eyes and I let out a sob.

"Bella, how bad is he?" Jasper asked, concerned.

I shook my head and began to full-out sob.

"Bella, just relax, I'm coming over there." Jasper said confidently. I heard a door slam and a car start. "And at the speed I'm planning on going, I'm going to get there before the ambulance."

I appreciated Jasper's attempt at humor in this situation, but it went almost entirely unnoticed by me. Nothing seemed a laughing matter in this situation. I just kneeled there, sobbing over Edward's body.

"Bella, it's going to be fine. I just got on the highway. I'm going to be there in less than a minute."

Edward began to breath quickly as he resurfaced, tossing his head from side to side like he was saying no. His right arm, oddly shaped at the wrist as it was, automatically went to his forehead. He hissed in pain.

"Edward, be very still. You broke a lot of bones." I said through my sobs. I wiped some of my tears away, leaving trails of Edward's blood on my face. His eyes flickered open to a squint, like he was trying to see through a thick fog, or through the sunlight after being in the dark, and he moaned, but had an odd smile on his face.

"I'd say I was in heaven, but it hurts too much…" At this point, I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. He must just be relieved to be free and see another human being. Besides, he was in too much pain to be coherent.

"Bella, is he awake?" Jasper asked. I had completely forgotten he was on the phone again.

"Yeah." I said softly. I heard a car squeal to a stop, and Jasper hung up on my phone.

"Bella!" Jasper's voice called. I looked up from Edward's pained and bloody face to see him running at me. He gasped. "Are you alright?"

He was probably eyeing the blood on my face. "It's Edward's."

"B-but, your side." Jasper stuttered as he bent down and touched my side. It suddenly stung. I hissed and cringed away from his touch.

"Oh, _thanks_ for pointing that out!" I scolded through clenched teeth.

"Sorry." He quickly apologized.

Sirens entered my hearing, quickly growing louder and louder until the sound blared in my ears and deafened me. A headache sprouted in my forehead and one of my hands sprung in a vain attempt to stop the pain. But it was too great.

**JPOV**

I watched in horror as Bella fell over, unconscious, beside Edward, who was behaving similarly. I began to panic before four men with two stretchers hurried toward them, pushing and shoving me out of their way.

"That's my sister!" I yelled at them.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stay calm." A policeman said, restraining me gently. I ferociously tore out of his grasp.

"Stay _CALM?!_" I yelled. "My _sister_ was just in a _street race_ with my fiancée's _murderer_, trying to rescue my _gardener_, who is _bleeding_ to _death_ with _said sister_ and I _can't_ go with them to make _sure_ they're _alright_, and _your_ telling _me_ to _STAY CALM?!_"

By the end of my rant I was in tears, the reality of the situation finally hitting me like a sledgehammer.

"Hey, Bergman, Freed!" The police officer waved two of his partners over. "Take the two cars to the hospital. I think this guy's going into shock, but there's no room in the ambulance."

The two policemen nodded and got into Bella's and my cars, quickly following the ambulance and were soon out of sight. I stared after them, unmoving and still taking the day in. Bella must be having a very interesting birthday.

"Come on." The police officer grabbing my arm and pulled me over to his cruiser. We got in and he began driving. "So, what's your name, kid?"

"Jasper Swan." I answered with my same emotionless tone. I spoke without looking his way, but I could see him stiffen out of the corner of my eye. "What's yours?"

He completely ignored my question. "I thought you looked familiar. It's been years since I last saw you. How's Renée?"

I turned to him, confused.

Realization dawned on his face. "That was Isabella, wasn't it?"

I nodded, like it was obvious. Technically, it _was_.

"Oh my god." Now _he_ was the on in shock. "My daughter's going to the _hospital_!"

**A/N: Just a warning, there is going to be some full out swearing in the next chaper, more so than this one. So, please don't kill me for that. It's just, how would you act if your step-father that abandoned you 20 years ago suddenly made and appearance in your life, and you had to spend an entire car ride with him?**

**No worries,  
Kylie M.**


	5. Chapter 5

**EPOV**

I had the most horrible, but wonderful, dream.

It was that the murderers were transporting me out of town, but I got sighted, and Bella found me. Then she did this whole car race from an action movie while I tried to jump into her car, but I lost my balance and nearly killed myself by falling to the cement from a car going 200 miles an hour. I nearly bled to death, but Bella found me again, and just looking at an angel like her just took my breath away and gave me something to live for. And then we both ended up going unconscious from lack of blood and the bad shock and tremendous pain.

Oh well, it was actually nice while it lasted. That was never going to happen. I was going to be tortured to death by murderers trying to find out my secret. But I had tons of secrets, and I wasn't very keen on telling the murderers all of them just to figure out which one they wanted, so I just kept me mouth shut and didn't say a word.

Not one sound in four months.

All to keep a secret.

I had a pretty good idea of what secret they wanted, but I didn't want to confirm my suspicion. That could mean Bella's and Jasper's deaths.

My eyes flickered open, finishing their preparation for more pain. Maybe today would be the day they finally killed me. Maybe I was in Heaven right now, for not letting Mrs. Swan down. Then again, Hell was a equal, if not more probable, possibility…

I was blinded by fierce white lights. Maybe they were trying to cut my eyes out, or wanted me to have the best view of them carving my ribs like bloodthirsty cannibals. Not that they were anything else. They had already drank my blood for the pleasure of it, dressing up as vampires with the reasoning of a convincing Halloween costume. It hadn't been _that_ long, had it? I was pretty sure it was still September… but then again, I could easily be wrong. A mental calendar isn't the most reliable thing.

After a minutes, I gained my eyesight back and looked around. I was in a hospital room, or what looked like a hospital room. To my left, there was a window looking out onto a forest, and on my right…

Was that Bella? Whoever it was had long, wavy brown hair spread out across the bed she was on. She had pale skin, like milk but with a rosy tint, and she was still sleeping like an angel. It was definitely Bella.

Wow. Maybe I _was_ in a hospital. But, that would mean that…

Bella actually did find me. But…

Oh god, I tried to _jump cars?_ I was an idiot, wasn't I?

I looked down at me body, which was so wrapped in bandages on my right side and casts on my left that I looked like very unbalanced mummy. Well, at least the casts were just white, and not… _gulp_… pink.

I looked to Bella again, who I just realized had a rather bulky bandage on her left side. The middle was a bit bloody, telling me that the wound there had refused to stop bleeding, and depending on the time, never did. The blood had turned brown, so it must have been recently that they were changed or put on.

Just then, I head yelling coming from down the hallway and running footsteps coming towards our room. A few seconds of the crescendo beat led to a very angry and agitated-looking Jasper opening the door before groaning.

"Charlie, get out." He snarled and began to slam the door before a police officer stopped it with his hand and foot.

"Why?" The police officer spat, obviously just as angry with Jasper as Jasper was with him.

"Only family is allowed at this time." Jasper hissed murderously.

"She's as much _my_ daughter as _you_ are Renée's _son_!" The police officer spat back, raising his voice.

"Well, then, it's a good thing you're in a hospital." I couldn't see Jasper's face, but I knew his expression was something very close to an evil smile with _that_ tone.

"And why would that be?" The police officer crossed his arms, unbelieving or doubting Jasper's intentions.

"Because I might just have to do _this_." And with that simple statement, Jasper slammed the door, hitting the officer right in the face and blowing him back several feet before the door crashed shut. Jasper chuckled darkly, locked the door, and took a seat on an armchair between Bella's and my beds with his head in his hands.

"What was that all about?" I asked quietly, but Jasper still jumped, startled.

"Oh, god, did we wake you, Edward?" He asked apologetically.

I shook my head. "No, I was up before your little scene. Who was that man?"

Jasper's face grew grave, and his eyes raged. "That man is my ex-step-dad. Bella's father. He left my mom when I was three, a few months after Bella was born, and only a year after they had married. He is no father of Bella's, and will never be."

Jasper's voice got increasingly venomous as he continued his explanation, so I dropped the subject. "Where am I?"

"Forks Hospital." Jasper said, all hate disappearing from his features. "You guys really gave us a scare, having two people black out at the same time, both of which I know, freaked me out. You better not do that to me again."

Jasper and I had been… friends, sort of, four months back before I got abducted. He had helped me cut down a few unwelcome bushes and trees that his mother hadn't liked, and helped me with other stuff. He knew of my crush on his half-sister, and teased me about it, but upon my request he hadn't told her anything.

"I'll try." I said dutifully, and tried to salute to seal the deal, but my bandaged arm stung with pain the second I tried to move my elbow.

Jasper bit his lip. "Does it hurt?"

I gave him a look that said 'duh!'

"Sorry." He looked away, to Bella. "Her car door smashed into her side when the Mercedes bashed up against her car."

"I never really took Bella for a Volvo driver. What happened to that ancient lump of a truck she adored and protected against everything?" I asked, amused at her choice of car. I had personally liked Volvos myself, and thought it was the perfect car for Bella. The perfect car for the perfect woman…

"It was her birthday yesterday." Jasper whispered sadly. I gasped softly. "That car was my present to her. And now it's ruined."

"No kidding. I knew she wouldn't have bought that on her own." This caused both of us to laugh. "But this just means your going to have to get her a new one."

"This time I'm getting her a Guardian." Jasper mused, almost to himself. "With her luck, next time she gets into trouble it will be a nuclear warhead." He shook his head. "I swear, a murderer, then a car chase, then what? These things just keep getting worse and worse."

I laughed quietly, but then turned serious. "So, why hasn't she waken up yet? Her injuries weren't as bad as mine, were they? Just a little dent on the side…"

**JPOV**

Tears welled up in my eyes, but blinked them back as best I could. Edward looked at me with sympathy and curiosity because of my action, but I didn't care. This news wasn't in my favor at all, and deserved some tears, right?

I looked at Bella's heart monitor, which was beating like a drum beat on the other side of the room, and then back to Edward. "Edward, she's in a coma."

Edward instantly tensed, his eyes wide and scared for Bella. For not really knowing her, he really cared about Bella. I never realized how big of a crush he had on my half-sister before… whoa.

"When that car dented her door, one of her ribs actually broke, and punctured the skin on her side and almost poked into her stomach. Two very vital birds with one stone…" I trailed off, tears creeping out of my eyes slowly now. "And then there was a piece of metal that got right between her heart and shoulder blade, and sobbing didn't do her any good because it forced the scrap more toward her heart. Bella's body decided enough was enough and completely shut down, except for what she needs to stay alive."

Edward looked heartbroken. "How long will she be out?" He asked quietly in a watery voice.

"Anywhere from one week to a few months." Even though it killed me to say it, it was true. My little sister could lose her memory, her skills, her personality—everything. There was a possibility she wouldn't be my little sister when she came out of it. "It all depends on how her body reacts to the surgeries. If it accepts that she's almost completely healed, she'll be out sooner. But it not…

"If not she could lose her memory, and possibly forget how to wake up." My voice broke and tears flowed freely. "And even if she did, there's a very high probability she wouldn't remember any of us, or anything."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Edward insisted. I shook my head and put my head in my hands again. "We just have to wait it out, then?" I nodded. "Oh, god, this is all my fault! If I hadn't been spotted, she wouldn't have found me, and she wouldn't be like this! She'd be more than a breathing corpse!"

"Edward, it's not your fault." I mumbled. "I saw the traffic cameras' records of the race. She got on the freeway to test out the car and slowed when she saw yours. She wasn't expecting that."

"But still!"

"Edward, they were moving you today. Your sighting did nothing to Bella. She wasn't immediately set on finding you to her dying breath." I tried to calm Edward, but he just shook his head and turned away from me.

Just then, someone tried to open the door I had conveniently locked, and then they banged on it. "Mr. Swan, open this door right now!"

I relaxed when it was Charlie. I got up and opened the door to reveal a very disheveled doctor. "Carlisle? I thought you were still in Maine."

**EPOV**

"Uncle?" I asked at the mention of Carlisle. I turned my head to the door.

"Edward!" A familiar blonde man exclaimed and pushed past Jasper to get to me. "You're here! We've been so worried! You have no idea what this has been doing to Esme! She's in the waiting room right now! I'm going to go get her!"

"Carlisle, wait—" I was cut off by clicks of a camera and news reporters beginning to yell at me. Carlisle disappeared into the crowd, and Jasper closed the door right after him

"Carlisle's your uncle?" Jasper asked, sitting down in the armchair again.

"His wife, Esme, is my mother's sister." I explained. Jasper nodded thoughtfully and turned back to Bella, a sad look taking over her face. "Carlisle might be able to help her. He's a very good doctor."

"But I can't help but wonder what she must be going through." Jasper whispered in a watery voice. I could envision the tears running down his face. "I can't help but wonder if she's in pain, or if she's still going to be my little sister after this. I'm scared for her, Edward." Jasper looked back at me with red-rimmed eyes. "I'm scared for _me_. I'm not sure I'll be able to take losing her."

Jasper broke down sobbing, unable to say anymore. All his troubles were more prominent by each of his gasping breaths.

And it was all my fault.

**BPOV**

Is this what it was like to die? I might be mistaken, but I was quite alive just moments ago, and now my world was black. An endless void to go on past the outer reaches of the universe and taunt me forever?

But this didn't make any sense. I _knew_ I was alive. I just… was sleeping. But I knew, nor could deny the fact that this wasn't any normal sleeping. Normally, I would be dreaming of incoherent things, all passing in seconds before I woke up, all seeming so short yet so long. They wouldn't let me take control; dreams would just take their course.

But this wasn't a normal dream. I knew I had all control… but had _none_. I imagine this must be what it's like for a leader losing a war. Feeling the maddening sensation of having so much power, but being so _helpless_.

I tried to keep some of my sanity. I tried to record how much time I spent in this empty oblivion.

_One… two… three…_

_Three billion, one hundred twenty-five million, seven hundred eighteen thousand, nine hundred ninety-eight…_

There goes my sanity. A long time of counting the seconds, only to end up feeling as if merely milliseconds had passed. If I could, I would be screaming in horror. This was _not_ normal. Deep down, I knew nobody should even have the _opportunity_, their choice or not, to experience this madness.

But what could I do?

I felt weightless, like I was floating through space, but I couldn't see or move my limbs, feel anything except my own terror. I couldn't feel the tears that would be streaming down my face. I couldn't hear my anguished sobs. I couldn't see the slightest change of color, shade or light. I couldn't smell even the stalest of air. I couldn't taste my saliva in my non-existent mouth.

I was just nothing. An inanimation, sentenced to a non-life of nothing.

Nothing…

_NOTHING_

**A/N: So... Bella's in a coma!! dramatic/suspenseful orchestra sound effect Edward was too good to kill, and I didn't want Jasper to commit suicide, but I wanted something bad to happen. Please don't hate. This is NOT going to turn into a Bella-recovery story, because personally, I think that those types of things are boring and draw on too much. No, this is still a murder-type story. Nothing's going happy-go-lucky. Yeah, that stopped in everybody's life when Alice died.**

**Hope this wasn't too cryptic, but just enough!  
Kylie M. **


	6. Chapter 6

**CPOV**

"Is my daughter going to be alright?" The police officer, Charlie, asked me, clearly concerned for Isabella. This man, as Jasper had explained to me a few hours ago, had abandoned him, Isabella, and their mother Renée just a few months after Isabella was born, so Charlie obviously had a problem with her birth.

I, personally, found that cruel and sick, for every being on the Earth should be revered, no matter how small or evil themselves. So, naturally…

"Officer Swan, as of nineteen and a half years ago, you are not her father." In any way shape, or form, I wanted to add. "Just biologically."

"Charlie, Bella grew up without any father figure." Jasper spat venomously from his chair between Isabella and Edward's beds. Edward was awake, too, but had wisely chosen to stay out of the conversation. "You are _no_ father."

"Enough!" Charlie yelled at Jasper. They glared at each other intensely for a few moments before Charlie continued. "Can a fa—" Charlie stopped after a sharp look from Jasper and restarted. "Can a man not be concerned for his da— acquaintance?"

"Yes, you can, but—"

Isabella moaned quietly and tossed once on her bed before settling again. Charlie was staring wide-eyed and amazed at her, while Jasper and Edward were looking at her with the most hopeful eyes I had ever seen belonging to any creature. It was slightly disconcerting to see Edward so… infatuated.

"I think its best for you to leave now, Charlie." I cautioned. Charlie suddenly spun around to throw a death glare at me. I continued. "I have to check her vitals and administer some tests."

"And why can't I be here?" Charlie yelled.

"There's blood." Jasper said monotonously. We turned to him. "Bella can't stand the smell of blood. I'll wager you can't either."

Charlie opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to come up with a good argument, but ended up storming out of the room.

"Thank you, Carlisle." Jasper said and relaxed into the chair.

"Jasper, I think I agree with you about Charlie." I said, moving over to Isabella's bed to check her monitors. "But still, for a man who didn't know his daughter, he was quite attached to her."

"It's exactly what he did to Renée." Jasper said tightly. "He claimed he would love her forever, but ended up leaving just months later. My mom was torn. I'm not going to let Charlie near Bella if she wakes up, not if he's just going to hurt her."

I didn't fail to notice Jasper meaningful glance at Edward, and my nephew's understanding nod.

I dismissed it when I couldn't make anything out of it. Instead, I continued with Isabella's tests. Her heart rate was going well, a very relaxed 60 beats per minute, though it was going considerably quicker for some reason right now. Her IV was dripping continuously and didn't need changing for the next few hours. Unfortunately, the cut on her side was still bleeding, and had refused to stop for the past few hours, ever since we got her out of surgery. I'd have to check up on that…

**EPOV**

Knowing the calm, collected Jasper, it was… different, and a bit scary, to see him so enraged. It was like he was just unleashing years worth of hate and fury in one day. For all I knew, he was. But it would have just been a few months' worth.

I knew Alice. Well, not _personally_, but enough to know she was Jasper soul mate, a perfect puzzle piece. Everything just… _fit_ with them. Their personalities, opposing as they were, matched harmoniously, and Alice just fit under Jasper's arm like a finally found second part. I knew Jasper before he had met Alice, so I could tell the almost frightening impact Alice had had on his life. Jasper must have been having an internal battle between suicide, living for Bella, or going off in a bloodthirsty rage to find and kill Alice's murderers.

"Jasper, you might want to take a look at this." Carlisle said, worried, from beside Bella. We instantly tensed; this couldn't be good.

Somewhat hesitantly, yet rushed, Jasper stood and strode over to Carlisle, who showed him a clipboard with a grave face. I could see tears gathering up at the corners of Jasper's red eyes. Fearing for Bella, I found my heart going triple its pace.

"So how long is she going to be out?" Jasper asked quietly, meeting Carlisle's gaze.

"That really depends on lots of things…" Carlisle trailed off, looking at Bella again. "Would you like to have her home?"

"I think it would be better if she could be watched 24-7."

"Okay, well, she doesn't need any of this equipment. Her brain is functioning, and she's breathing on her own. The only thing she really needs is the IV, but that can be easily transported." Carlisle explained slowly, like he was trying to convince himself, too. It worried me beyond belief.

"So how long?" Jasper asked, getting a bit impatient. My uncle sighed.

"Three months, maybe more."

**BPOV**

I felt like I was beginning to forget things. I had this nagging feeling the back of my mind telling me my memories were just slowly slipping away. It terrified me.

I began to find the pieces of my mind that I always wanted to know and never forget.

You know, losing your memory can really snap things into perspective for you. Like, you never realize how meaningless some memories are, and how vital others can be, until you're forced to chose them.

So I sorted through them, treasuring each one last time before either letting it go into Oblivion or hording it in the depths of my mind. It was like moving into a smaller space, knowing each one of your possessions has a special meaning and story, and having to throw most of it away.

I flicked through them like books. I was getting tired, but I knew the less work I did the more would be thrown away.

I thought of Mom. Not that I had very many memories, well, _good_ memories, of her. It was just seeing her pictures on the covers of magazines, or her popping into the house for a few hours— per year. There were no real things I wanted to keep of her. Just know her name and face.

Then there was my _real_ family; Jasper and Alice. I kept everything I could I of them, only leaving out the fights and disagreements.

And then Edward…

Let me ask you this; what do you do when you have a crush on an _amazing_, _god-like_ person who, until a day ago, probably didn't know you exist, but you think you're in love with him because you put his needs above all others and can't get him out of your mind?

Do everything you can to keep it that way.

I quickly filed the memories of him.

**EPOV**

Jasper was snoring on the armchair. I had tried to get him to go home, telling him that he should get some _actual_ sleep, but he wanted to be by Bella, for reasons that I could completely comprehend. One of them was to keep Charlie away.

I tried to follow Jasper's example, but for some reason I just could get to sleep. I had the awkward feeling of someone watching me, and it sent shivers up my spine.

I looked out the window, but that didn't do me any good. We were on the fourth floor. Jasper was asleep, and a cloth had been put over the small window on the door. And Bella was in a coma. Unless Carlisle was somehow very, very wrong in his estimation, there was no way she could be awake.

Nonetheless, I longed for her. Trying to ignore the nostalgic feeling I felt for the warmth and unconditionally loving concern in Bella's beautiful brown eyes was impossible. And it killed me to know that they would be lifeless for a month— possibly and probably more.

It also killed me to feel how unbelievable uncomfortable this position was. I knew that my surgery tomorrow night would let me lose some of the casts and just get some bracers, since the injuries were more of quantity than quality, but it was still annoying. And let me tell you, staying on your back for God knows how long can be _incredibly_ irritating.

I groaned out loud, voicing my opinion on casts with a mild curse.

Seven broken ribs, all on the left side of my ribcage meant that it was considerably collapsed. But that would be fixed with several little metal links connecting each break together.

Apart from that, my left leg was broken in two places, at my old fracture in my shin and then again just about my knee. My right leg, though, just had a sprain at the ankle and some mild scabs from the skid.

Oh God, but my torso was much worse. In _addition_ to the ribs, that nearly punctured my lungs, heart, and stomach, my shoulder bone was completely shattered on my left side, and my arm was dislocated at the elbow, and was scratched in a deep cut that went from the curve of my mangled shoulder to knuckle of my middle finger and was, at most, two and a half inches wide. And all the bone under it was showing. So, I guess there was a good reason for me to be uncomfortable. After all, there's only so much a painkiller can do…

But that didn't explain my being-watched feeling, and that was _definitely_ not just a paranoid suspicion. I had been trained as a secret agent. I knew these things.

I groaned one more time before looking at Bella for comfort. But comfort was the last thing I got.

**BPOV**

I felt eyes on me, dim as the feeling was, and mentally groaned at how little I had gleaned of everything. Darkness befell on me once again, and my mind automatically went into a state of unconsciousness.

Damn.

That took a lot more out of me that I thought.

**EPOV**

I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath until my already stressed lungs were screaming for air. I let out my old breath and gasped for more air. But lack of air wasn't the only good reason for breathing hard; that was just terrifying. I didn't know Bella could scare me _that_ much!

Jasper snored again and tossed so he was blowing his bad breath in my face. I take it he hadn't brushed his teeth today.

Trying to breath through my mouth, I stretched my arm as far I could without tearing opening the scabs and caught hold of Jasper's cell phone, which sat charging on the bedside table. With just tow fingers, I pulled the cord out of the small hole in the side of the phone and dropped it in my lap.

I flexed my fingers, wincing at the pain, and flipped open Jasper's phone. I typed a familiar number before holding the phone up to my ear. It rang six times before someone answered.

"Jasper?" Carlisle's voice echoed in my ear, heavy with sleep.

"No, it's Edward."

I could almost imagine Carlisle's widened eyes with his tone. "Why aren't you asleep? You have to build up your strength for the surgery tomorrow—"

"I know, but I had the nagging feeling somebody was watching me."

"Edward, no one who was conscious was in there when I left, save for you, and it's been locked ever since, hasn't it? Did you ever figure it out?"

"Yes." I answered reluctantly. "But it didn't make any sense."

"How so? Isn't it just a person watching you?"

"Yeah… but that person happens to be in a coma."

**A/N: Sorry, I just had to incorporate Bella's completely weird brain. This isn't to turn supernatural or anything.**


	7. Chapter 7

**BPOV**

I could make out voices around me, but I had to strain my ears too much, and it took too long. In the time it would take me to gather up the concentration to clarify the soft mumbles, the people would already be done talking.

The times I could, I tried to move and speak to them, to tell them that this was terrifying, that I couldn't remember a lot, but had no idea what I had lost, that I was confused about what was going on and didn't know why everything was black, or how my blind movements were sluggish.

As far as I knew, I had no way of communication. With anyone.

A few times the voices were much louder, and I could hear them muffled…

"_She's…thr…con…ness…resur…ing…"_

Not that I could make anything of it. I wanted to laugh at what this person could be saying.

"_Bella!"_

**EPOV**

I yelled from my bed. Her merry laughing continued but she turned to face me. If I forgot she was in a hospital, I'd have thought she was running through the wind in a meadow. She looked so carefree, and… lovable, for lack of a more expressing word.

"Carlisle, this _isn't normal_!" I cried, officially freaked out. And somewhat frustrated. Bella seemed to be perfectly awake and alright last night, but now it was just fits and giggles. It was like she was sleep talking. Ever heard of the man that slept for a hundred years? The idea of Bella in a coma for that long scared the _crap_ out of me.

"My only explanation is that her body is telling itself that it's alright, but her mind doesn't agree. It's going on instinct." Carlisle said unsurely. "But, then again, it's more likely the other way around. Her mind is in higher possibility of reacting that way, and it might overcome her body's instincts long enough to get something through. It would put a lot of strain on her mind, and it might deteriorate her memories at an increased rate. It's all to do with how hard she's trying."

Deteriorate her memories… quicker… "Can she chose which memories to hold onto?"

"That's very rare. But, considering her behavior right now, I don't know what to expect. Maybe, it might be possible to…"

"What might be possible?" I asked quickly and impatiently. Thank god Jasper wasn't here. He'd have a mental breakdown and probably spend the rest of Bella's coma in a padded cell.

"Getting through to her. If it's mind over matter, which seems to be mostly true for her, she might be able to take control of her body, or at least parts of it, for short amounts of time. If we can get through to her long enough, we might be able to tell her to relax, since it will make her mental stress ease up enough to keep her memory for a longer period of time."

"We need all the chance we've got." I pleaded. My heart spiked, alerting my heart monitors immediately, when Bella turned over on her side and faced towards me. Her face looked so peaceful, so content. A soft smile was planted on her lips, and her eyelids were delicately closed. An angel.

All the chance we've got…

I heard a large thump against the door.

**JPOV**

I couldn't even begin to fathom what Carlisle meant by 'deteriorating'. She was my sister; my Bella. And she wouldn't—_couldn't_— be anyone else. No matter what she lost, or missed, or forgot, she'd always be _my_ Bella.

I collapsed against the door, wrapping my arms around my knees, and banged my head three times against the door, so hard that a headache bloomed from the back of my head like daisy.

"Jasper!" I heard my mom _finally_ call. It's not like she was waiting there for the past _five_ minutes (note the sarcasm). She had probably been flirting with one of the male nurses, or off-duty doctors. Yes. I was reluctant, but completely and sadly honestly, to admit that my mother was a professional model… and slut. How she managed to keep a relationship with a man long enough to have two children is beyond me.

"What happened, dear?" She asked in a sickly sweet voice. She was trying to be motherly for her fans. It blew me up to know she was using me to get another unworthy husband. You'd think after the first one died, and the second left not a year after marriage, she'd know love just wasn't her luck.

"Renée, my _sister_, your _daughter_, is in there," I knocked my knuckles against the door, which resounded with a dull _thunk_, "in a _coma_, losing her _memory_, and I have no idea if she's going to come out of it the same person! And all you can think about it having sex with the first man you see! How can you call yourself a mother?"

I stood up suddenly, opened the door, and slammed it behind me. I ignored the shocked stares from Carlisle and Edward and plopped down in the armchair—which was quickly becoming mine— and tried to fall off into sleep. I hadn't slept at all last night, and somehow I didn't think knowing my sister might not remember me when she woke up was going to help.

Wow, for a quiet and calm person, I had been blowing up a lot lately. To my parents.

**EPOV**

Bella, surprisingly enough, was the first one to break the silence left by Jasper's grand entrance. She sighed unhappily, and turned around to face her brother. In doing so, her arm flopped out to rest on Jasper's chest. I think he was asleep, but he still clutched onto it for dear life, or in his case, sanity.

It was so sweet, almost picturesque, but then I remembered the reason it was like this. Bella was stressing herself out to have at least one level of communication with us, through vague gestures and mumbles.

"Jasper…" Bella sighed, the small crease between her smooth eyebrows disappearing into her forehead. A small smile graced her lips.

"Absolutely amazing." Carlisle muttered. "I never knew someone could be so… _coherent_ in a coma. You know, Edward, this might go on for less time than I thought…"

Someone knocked calmly on the door, for once, and waited for an answer before barging in. Carlisle called a soft 'come in', and another doctor in algae-colored scrubs and a white lab coat stepped in.

"It's time for the pre-operation check-up." He said calmly. "We have to make sure you're strong enough for the operation to be a success, Mr. Masen."

Translation: we don't want you dying on us and ruining our record, Mr. Masen.

I took one glance at Carlisle, who shrugged, and then at the doctor, whom I nodded to. In a second, I was sitting up, struggling to move my feet over the edge of the hospital bed. I groaned when I noticed I was wearing a stupid hospital gown. It might have just been my rising paranoia, but I was sure to face Bella, just in case she would suddenly wake up again like last night.

**BPOV**

I don't know how I knew. I just did. One minute (or so I think) I felt alone, and confused, and strangely giddy when my name was called, the next, I felt the overwhelming need to rollover. Once I did, I vaguely felt my out-stretched arm hit something, and I just knew it was Jasper.

Jasper…

And then I felt like sleeping. Not this state of frightening inactivity, but actually _sleep_. Like happy-go-lucky dreams, where nothing is wrong.

But in truth, I knew everything _was_ wrong. _Very_ wrong. I silently prayed to God that I was blind, or deaf; I had my whole life ahead of me. I wasn't even done with college! I wasn't even 21! There were so many experiences I wanted to have in full detail, not a pressured, make-believe idea of what they were like.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, I suddenly felt ten times emptier than I ever had in my life. The only thing that rivaled it was seeing Edward in a pool of his own blood after my little action movie. But that one was mainly devastation, like I had lost Jasper and Alice both at once. No. This was the empty feeling you get when you're a toddler lost at a grown-ups' Halloween party. Where the tiniest little thing can set you off screaming.

I was quickly consuming me, like my heart was stopping and chest was collapsing altogether, determined only to cause me pain.

"_Edward…g…ba…n…re!"_

Edward? Edward had left? Edward had been _here?_

"_What happened?"_ A sweet, velvety voice said clearly. I was stunned stiff that I could hear him like he was speaking in my ear.

"_Sh…zed…nce…ou…ot…ut…f…room."_

"_C…le…e…xam…on…as…o…gin."_ This was an unfamiliar voice.

"_Can't we postpone it long enough for her to calm down? She'll probably rip her side open if that happens again."_

"_Pa…n…ler."_

Panler… painkiller. Of course. Jasper must be talking. He's always thinking of the best for me. But, I hate drugs, even if they are medical. I tried to shake my head and roll myself into a fetal position to give them nowhere to put the needle.

"_Are…o…re…e's…n…a…ma?"_

"_Yes I'm sure. If she wasn't, I'd probably be thanking her for saving my life."_

All the while Edward was speaking, he was getting dimmer, and I knew that wasn't just me. He had gone for whatever he had to do. Again, I cursed my inability to move and chase his comfort.

I had an immeasurable time to think over the past… the past time I had been 'sleeping'. I really got a lot done. For instance, I can now do long division in my head! And, I did all the homework I could remember; in my head! I've got to get some sort of reward for that, because college courses aren't exactly the easiest when it comes to mental homework. Have you ever tried to compile a nearly 50-paragraph essay on the history of literature mentally? Thought not.

But, to more pressing matters.

Edward had confounded and confused me since Day 1 he had started out as our gardener. He must have been just 17 or 18 when he began work. Everyday when I would walk home from school, be would be there, rain or shine. It was one of the only things I could count on.

But it had annoyed to me no end how he had always avoided my gaze whenever possible. Sure, he looked at Jasper a lot, and even talked with him! But me? Nothing. Not a look, not a peek. Not a word.

Yet, I looked at him a lot. As the complete opposite of him, I took every chance I got to stare at him, and then he would look up and we would both turn away. I always had a blush on my face. Even though I always _did_ blush, a lot, Edward just made it ten times worse, if not more.

No matter how hard I thought, I never got anywhere with my feelings towards him. It was like a really hard puzzle, but once you figure out the strategy, it's so annoyingly easy! And the worst part is that it feels like even your conscious is laughing at you for not getting it.

Love kept coming up on my mind.

**EPOV**

The examination was mainly just of the doctor opening my casts to make sure my bones were healing properly. I knew that it was too soon to tell, but also that spotting things quickly helps right them faster. When you think about it, so many things seem like they can go wring in a split second, and it makes me worry. And with worrying, I don't go halfway.

"Well, Edward, everything checks out!" The doctor announced, putting down his clipboard. He had a smile on his face. "And the operation room is all set up and ready once I tell you the details! Any questions about the surgery?"

"Um… one." I said confidently. "What's going to happen to my shoulder?"

The doctor frowned for a second, looking deep in thought. "Well, it's shattered beyond repair. We had two choices; to either wait the year and a half it'd take to heal, completely cutting you off from moving your left hand for that time, or replacing the bone.

"I hope it isn't a problem for you, since you're going to have to take therapy afterwards, but you'd still have to take it either way."

"It's fine. Might as well get it over with." I sighed and laid down on the stretcher. He came over with a mask, as well as several other male nurses and other doctors, and I blacked out.

New shoulder and ribcage; here I come.

**A/N: A full, shiny hundred points to whoever can decipher all six sentences!**

**For those of you who actually know what it's like to witness, or even be in a coma, I apologize completely if this isn't very realistic at all, which I know it is. I know as much about comas as I do about quantum physics. But, if you could PM me about what makes a coma a coma, that'd be great. Something that you must know about me is that I'm a very logical person, and if my stories are all human and realistic, I try to base it as much on pure fact as possible.**

**No worries,  
Kylie M. **


	8. Chapter 8

**EPOV**

_Bella laughed. I twirled her around in my arms, lifting her waist to nearly my shoulders. The sun brought out a reddish tint to her wavy brown hair, making sequoia quickly become my favorite color._

"_Bella, come on!" I yelled cheerfully, setting her down and pulling her by the hand up a grassy hill. The time was perfect—the sun was just setting, casting a wide array of pastels across the skies._

_We collapsed on the very crest of the hill, leaning against each other in laziness. This moment was perfect._

"_Bella…" I whispered. She leaned her head against my shoulder._

"_Yes?" Came her sweet angel's voice._

"_Bella." I turned my head and gently pushed her chin to look at me. "I think I lo…"_

_I hesitated and my breath caught in my throat. Bella's eyes were too deep: like they were looking into my soul. It mesmerized me to the point of incoherency. What do you do when you love someone so much you can't even say it?_

_A shot rang in the air, and suddenly I was outside Bella's kitchen, my mind unconsciously playing the worst hour of my life._

_But this time, it wasn't just the murderer that came out; he was dragging Bella behind him before the burly man I had been fighting picked her up and swung my Bella over his shoulder._

"_BELLA!!!" I screamed, but nothing was heard. I tried to lift me hand, but it felt dead. Everything melted away into black, and then a knife came out of the darkness and practically carved my ribcage like a dead cow right in front of me. And I couldn't do anything about it. At the same time, daggers appeared and stabbed at my shoulder. I began to thrash with pain._

**CPOV**

"God damn it, Noelle!" I shrieked, completely out of character for me. "Get the bloody power back! He's gaining consciousness!"

Edward was beginning to tremble, twitching his body from his head to his toes. I watched in horror as his hand went to his chest, probably expecting to feel skin, but instead plunged below his ribcage and touched the thin skin around the end of his bare stomach. I could see the bottoms of his left lung quickening its pace and expanding and contracting faster.

"Hert, get me some painkiller!" I shouted at one of the nurses. He quickly bustled away to the counter, clutching a flashlight, and began running his hands through one of the drawers.

"Found it!" The nurse called. He tossed the cased needle to me, and I quickly injected Edward's IV with it.

"Carlisle, the circuit breaker's locked!" Noelle said from the doorway.

"Damn it!" I muttered. Then in a louder voice, "We need to get him under again! Somebody _please_ tell me you have a back-up generator at this hospital!"

"We do." Another doctor said. He walked over to me. "It's in the west wing of the hospital, at the end of the main hallway, big door that says 'Electrical Maintenance', access code is 57482. Once you get in, just flip the switch to 'On' and get back here as fast as you can."

I nodded quickly and rushed out of the operation room and to the lobby. Though I was reluctant to leave Edward right in the middle of his operation (even disregarding the fact that he was becoming conscious with his chest completely cut open), but this was the only way to get him under again.

In the lobby, there were at least a dozen people, including the receptionist, completely freaking out. My sprinting past them did no good.

"Somebody! Somebody help!" I heard Jasper's voice and my chest constricted. As if things couldn't get any worse, Isabella was probably dying, too.

"Jasper, what's happened?" I yelled as I neared Isabella's room, which was on the way to the generator. The door was locked. "Jasper, open this door!"

"I'm not opening this door until the girl wakes up." A low voice said. I panicked.

"Jasper, who is that?" I asked, worried. I began pounding on the door when he didn't answer. A girl began crying, and there was a crash and the sound of breaking glass. "Jasper, was that—"

"Bella!" He screamed. I heard the other man laugh. "You murderer!"

I gasped. The man killed Isabella? I was torn between helping Jasper and helping Edward. Both could die.

**JPOV**

"You murderer!" I screamed at the deathly familiar man, picking Bella up off the floor and comforting her. Tears were still flowing down her face, but the shock of getting hit off her bed with a beaker, which now lay in pieces on the covers of her bed, kept her from moving. She never failed to amaze me with how into things she was when still in her coma.

The man kept on laughing. I recognized his mocking laugh from the day Alice died. He murdered my Alice. My sweet, innocent Alice. A fury ignited my inside like a fuse.

"I remember you!" He cackled. "How's the knee doing? Still up and running, I see. I'm so disappointed. I thought a bullet to the leg would do much more damage than that!"

My nostrils flared and I gently put Bella down on Edward's empty bed, which she instantly relaxed on, for some reason, without taking my narrowed eyes off Alice's murderer. For a second, my eyes flicked to a piece of sharp, broken glass glinting in the dim light coming from a street light outside the window.

"Don't even think about it." The man growled, taking a gun out of his pocket and pointing it at me. He chuckled darkly. "Should I just end your misery right now?"

_Yes… yes… yes…_ Alice's part of me chanted. But that stopped when I involuntarily looked at Bella. _No… no… no…_ I was torn. Do I want my love or my sister?

"I think I shall."

The man didn't give me any time to think. My eyes snapped back up to his right as he pulled the trigger.

**EPOV**

Someone had given me a strip of material—leather, I think—to bit on. They were also holding my flailing arms and legs down.

"Somebody get his heart rate down!"

That's right. I was going to bleed to death if the pain didn't kill me first. With as much calm as I could muster through the searing pain in my torso, I began taking deep breaths, no matter how much like gasps them seemed. My hands clenched around the bed railings so tightly I thought I heard my knuckles cracking.

"Martin, he just broke the railing."

"_WHAT?!_"

The statement was almost enough to make me freeze. Key word: _almost_

"Somebody _please_ get Carlisle in here!" But at that moment, a door slammed open and someone's gulping breaths entered my ears, twice as quick as mine. "Carlisle! Where have you been?! Look at what just ha—"

"Martin—I—don't—care—about—the—bed!" Carlisle panted. "Someone—got— Jasper—and—Isabella!"

My eyes snapped open. Almost like an enraged animal, they took in my surroundings in a split second before I shot a bewildered look at Carlisle. He looked almost as surprised as when Bella started laughing in her coma.

"Who?" I asked quickly, almost like it was just a clicking of my tongue, like it was an insect. "Where?"

"Edward, your chest is cut open showing your ribs, lungs, and stomach." Carlisle all but calmly explained as several of the nurses ran out the door, one of them wielding a scalpel. If this wasn't unbelievably scaring, I would have actually laughed. "Anything that happened to you would damage your organs."

"Carlisle, I can't just sit here and wait for whoever it is to kill my Bella!" I raised my bloody hands to my eyes, which began getting watery. Carlisle wasn't saying anything, and I didn't think it was his silent consent to let me go.

"Edward," He started slowly, "I think 'your' Bella is dead."

**BPOV**

I heard a gunshot and my eyes snapped open. For the first time in… God knows how long, I could actually see clearly. Nothing was in haze—and that wasn't very appealing at the moment.

"Jasper!" I screamed and sobbing simultaneously. A shadow across the room, a man, as I soon realized (though he—it—was a poor excuse for one), chuckled as if he had merely tapped a house of cards just to see what happens. He appeared not to have heard me.

"Huh, I guess he's not the one after all." He shrugged, but I froze. His voice was familiar—it was the same one that had been haunting my dreams ever since he killed Alice. "Guess that means the girl…"

The murderer spun over to where I sat half-off a bed, smirking victoriously. However, his smirk disappeared as his eyes focused and his bushy, disgustingly greasy brows furrowed. I was silent as a rock, and just about as immobile as one, too. My legs twitched, urging me to go to Jasper, who lied in a pile of his own blood and had a bloody hole right between his scary open eyes. It took all I had to not rush out and sob as loud as I could.

"Where…?" Alice and Jasper's murderer asked himself, confused. I cocked my head at him. Did he not see the girl standing right in front of him? I didn't feel like testing my theory.

We both flinched when somebody kicked the door down in a flurry of woodchips and glass shards. The broken door hit the floor by the man, nearly banging on his ankle.

"Mr. Swan?"

My lip trembled as I bit it hard to keep quiet. There was a chance that the man, who was quickly becoming distracted by the person breaking the door down, hadn't seen me yet—and he had a gun. After seeing and_ knowing _what the murderer did, being seen by him was the last thing I wanted.

"Don't move!" The murderer shouted, pointed the gun away from my place and over to the doorway. "I mean it! I haven't gotten what I want yet, and I'm not leaving until I do!"

"Sir, put the gun down." A man dressed as a doctor slowly came out of the dust and attempted, in apparent vain, to calm the murderer. "This can be handled peacefully."

"Yeah, tell that to _Mr. Swan_."

The doctor's eyes trailed around the room, passing over me as if I weren't even there, and onto Jasper's corpse. I shuddered. My _brother's_ corpse.

I couldn't contain my anger any longer without consequence. A fury overtook me, spreading from the depths of my mind to the tips of my fingers and toes, possessing all but my most innocent of thoughts. But, why not take advantage that your would-be murderer couldn't see you?

I slid off the bed, confident though cautious—my invisibility-type state couldn't last forever. Careful to avoid looking at Jasper's body, (though I still felt the sticky liquid of his blood clutching to the soles of my bare feet) I swept down to the floor and grabbed the first sharp object I could find. A six-inch long piece of glass, jagged like a lightning bolt.

"Y-you killed—" I distantly heard the doctor stutter in a whisper.

"Mr. Swan. I am _quite_ aware." The murderer laughed mercilessly again, only fueling my already fury to unbearable. I had to kill something—namely him. "And I'm also quite aware that here I am, pointing a gun at you, a pitiful human whose going to be begging for mercy within the minute."

"I will never—" The doctor started, but was cut off by his own scream. He scrambled out of the room as fast as his long, lanky legs could take him, but not quick enough as to not hear the gurgle of blood rising in the murderer's throat, and see the maniac glint of a jagged point of glass shiny through the murderer's Adam's apple.

**EPOV**

"Edward, no!" Carlisle stubbornly said again as he pushed me gently back onto the cot by my bloody shoulders. "I can't do this with all your squirming around!"

He was referring to stitching my chest up as best he could by the light of a flashlight, held by a patient convulsing in pain as he got said stitches. What? I couldn't help the fact that I could still feel every nerve screaming in protest as the sliver of metal slid through my skin. At least they were just finishing up the surgery when I resurfaced again; in other words, at least my ribs were internally braced, as was my leg, and my shoulder bone was replaced. Otherwise, thrashing around would have been all the more painful.

But, no matter how necessary stitching up my chest was, it still made me hiss in pain and annoyance at the fact that I couldn't go to Bella. Annoyance that the last time I saw her alive as someone in a coma gets, she was tossing and turning, tearing and crying, muttering my name. I did not want the next time to be her in a pool of blood, or the sight of her mangled corpse, limbs twisted at all the wrong angles and eyes conveying pure and unadulterated terror. I'd never be able to forgive myself, nor would Jasper.

"There." Carlisle finally said, tying off the thin, but durable and strong, transparent string and cutting it off the reel. "But please, try not to over-exert yourself. They could break at any moment." He added as I hopped off the cot and headed towards the door. Carlisle had gotten me some clothes, since I was no longer incoherent and found being on a mission in a hospital gown very embarrassing, but my chest was still bare.

I sighed in the doorway, looking down at my stitches. I waited for a few seconds, just enough time for them to melt into my skin and merge together to form a long, faint pink scar that I knew would be most likely indiscernible within the day.

"Not a problem." I said confidently, though my voice was shaky with the aftermath of the pain and shock, as the last stitch melted away, and I began my brisk walk/run to Bella's room.

It quickened when: a) I heard a scream and b) when a ridiculously terrified doctor came running past me—

Away from Bella.

**A/N: I assure you this is going to be an all human story... Just not normal. I swear, I can't write any story without there being magic in it. I just can't. I'm truly sorry if you all hate me for it, and if I get enough reviews saying I should just keep it AH with no magic whatsoever, I will happily rewrite the chapter. I have a plot both ways.**

**No worries,  
Kylie M. **


	9. Chapter 9

**BPOV**

I looked at my hand. It was being covered with blood from the man's neck. Hesitantly, I removed my hand from around the glass, letting the man finally collapse in a heap of flesh and bone.

I shivered when my hand felt cold. I was ultimately disgusted with myself for killing somebody, but knowing I was avenging two of my closest family members made it better; almost enjoyable.

Still in shock, I back away from the murderer's corpse and out the door, praying to God that it wasn't just the murderer that couldn't see me. I knew I wasn't dead: I would have known once I failed to pick up the glass, but no matter how much this state helped me, it was still very eerie.

"Bella!" I was so out of it that I almost didn't hear that wonderful voice calling my name. At first came panic, thinking he might be able to see me, but then concern at the hysteria. Edward was just worried for me; that's all.

Wait—Edward!

Hands suddenly grasped my shoulders and spun me around to a gruesome sight. I couldn't help but take a gasp.

Edward stood before me, his torso completely uncovered and incredibly blood, all pooling out from a long scar on his left side, right above the arcs of his ribs. His hair was matted with sweat and stains of blood.

"Edward." I gasped. "What happened to you?"

Edward shrugged off the question and pulled me into a tight hug before I could say anything.

"Bella, Bella, Bella, thank god you're alright." He murmured.

**EPOV**

She was all right—_thank the heavens she was all right! _I wanted to scream out to the world that she had not only possibly escaped from a murderer, but also woke up from a coma after barely a week, even though the best doctor I knew predicted it would be at least ten times as long.

I was hugging her so tightly to my bloody chest that I almost didn't feel her hugging me back with just as much force—if not more— and sobbing into my shoulder.

"Bella?" I cautiously pulled back slightly so I could see her face. "What's—"

"Jasper!" She whispered, her impossibly soft voice cracking painfully. The angel buried her face back into my neck and I resumed clutching her for dear life. "He killed Jasper. Right in front of me! And I didn't do anything to stop it!"

"Bella, shh… It's all right…" I tried helplessly, rubbing calm strokes into her back.

"No!" Her sob was muffled. It was then that I saw the cluster of glass in her back.

"Bella, what did he do to _you_?" I pushed back from her a bit so I could see her face. Tearstains lined her cheeks, and a sickly red rimmed her beautiful brown eyes.

"He couldn't see me, Edward." She whispered hysterically. "He couldn't see me. I came at him with a shard of glass and he didn't see me. I _killed _him, and he _didn't see me!_"

Invisibility: she was learning already. And her power was feeding on her nerves at the moment. If she kept doing this for any longer, I feared she would begin to go insane.

"Bella, we have to get you out of here." I concluded. If she did anymore, two deaths and my superhuman regeneration wouldn't be the only things in question.

**CPOV**

I also knew Edward was a hardy boy, but man, he can get up and go! Barely minutes after being stitched up, he's running around, saving his crush. Just like a teenager.

Sighing, I packed up my stuff, cleaning off the bloody spool and needle in the sink. Sometimes, I felt the needle tip prick into my skin as I washed it, but I completely ignored it in my thoughts.

_How_ was Edward able to do that?

"_Carlisle, Edward broke the railing…"_ Marcus had referred to the fact that the solid metal bars Edward had been grabbed with all his strength as an output for the pain had completely disintegrated beneath his finger tips. Just two piles of metallic dust at the sides of the operation table were left.

"_Not a problem."_ Edward had practically sprinted down the hallway without even a red face, or panting breath. Like he was taking a stroll in a park. My first thought was that I was just woozy at the sight of my nephew's blood, but how can somebody survive an open-torso run like that? In the _dark?_

And I knew my nephew was _not_ _normal_.

I recalled a conversation I'd had with Edward Sr. a few nights before he had died.

_I walked into the stuffy hospital room, dressed in scrubs and holding a clipboard. Tears were ghosting in my eyes as I ran once more over my brother-in-law's test results. There was no use in sugar-coating it—he was going to die._

"_Carlisle." Edward Sr. croaked pitifully when he finally noticed me. "When am I going to die?"_

_I sighed sadly. "No more than a few days. I'm so sorry, Edward."_

_He chuckled quietly. "Just keep my little boy safe." He looked at his son, Edward Jr., sleeping in a sort of horizontal fetal position on a couple of chairs. "They don't know which parent it came from."_

"_What?" I asked, confused. Who had _what_ come from?_

"_Elizabeth is their next target." Edward Sr. continued to ramble. "They'll get her in just a few hours, at most." He turned to me then. "Whatever you do: keep Esme safe. She is too important to lose. Never let anyone know she is related to my Lizzie."_

This must have had something to do with it. Whatever Elizabeth had had led to her murder, and it apparently was a family trait. And Edward had it.

Pursing my lips in thought for a second, I picked up one of the bloody and gory scalpels and went to the microscope at the counter. Placing my flashlight in place of the usual light that ran on electricity, I tapped a drop of Edward's blood to the sheet of glass, covered it, and placed it securely on the metal stage.

After all, blood tells the truth.

**EPOV**

I glanced down both ends of the hallway before turning, pulling the slightly hysterical Bella behind me. All clear. I quietly stepped to the emergency exit of the hospital wing and put my hand on the door. I knew that we would only have so much time after the fire alarm went off to get out and away, but we could manage. I was quickly regaining my strength.

"Bella, we're going to have to hotwire a car once we get out." I whispered quietly in her ear. She just kept on with her soft whimpering and crying, as she had since I had found her. Poor, sweet, innocent angel: she didn't deserve all this grief. She didn't deserve this fate, but she still got it anyway.

I kept to the shadows, trying to avoid the gazes of the few, frantic policemen and firemen scurrying around the hospital, trying to save patients and get the power back on. If they had seen us, what would they do? Interrogate us, namely me, test us, and admit us back to the hospital. We couldn't go back, though, and I highly doubted that it would help our case if I told them Bella and I would literally _die_ if we went back. We would just be sitting ducks.

I finally got us to the parking lot undetected. My lips twisted into a smile when I saw a fast-looking car parked a few spaces away. A Saab, and it was black.

Oh God, how I missed cars.

Breathing slowly and deeply, I gently placed my hand over the passenger's door lock and closed my eyes. I focused solely on getting the car's door open, and within a few seconds, heard all the locks click as they popped up simultaneously.

"Bella, come on." I opened the door and Bella slipped inside. I went to the other side of the car and go in, too. "Bella?"

"Yes?" She asked. Her voice was dead and quiet.

"We're going to have to go dark for a while." I paused, looking at Bella out of the corner of my eye before bending down to look into the ignition. Once again, I put my hand over the hole and concentrated, starting the car quietly. "Nobody can know where we are."

"I think that's the point of doing dark." Bella said flatly. When I straightened up in my seat, I saw her staring straight ahead, her eyes unfocused.

"Bella?" I asked cautiously. She didn't answer until I nudged her.

"What?"

"You blanked out for a second. Are you alright?" I rose my hand to her forehead, which was burning up. "Bella, you're sick!"

"What did I do?" She yelled, slapping my hand away.

"You're sick. You have a _fever_." I clarified, and laughed when her stomach growled. "And hungry."

Well, she hadn't eaten in three days…

"What happened?" Bella asked quietly, curiosity burning in her voice. She leaned her head against the window, watching the scenery fly past as I pulled out of the parking lot. "How long was I out?"

For a second, I hesitated. I didn't know much about her, but I though she was the kind of person to freak out at the mention of them coming out of a coma early after nearly dying trying to save their gardener/protector.

"When Jasper found us, after you found me, we both blanked out from loss of blood." I began. My knuckles were grabbing the steering wheel so hard until they were white. "You were in a coma for a few days, which my uncle Carlisle thought would actually be a month."

"I-I w-was in a _coma_?" Bella whispered.

"Yes." I said simply.

There was silence for a few minutes, and then, "Edward, do you know why that man couldn't see me?"

Yes, yes I did, but I wasn't going to explain this to her in a car, and Bella being nearly hysteric and probably going into shock.

"I might." I settled with. "We're going to a friend of mine's to figure it out."

**CPOV**

Super-blood.

That was the only way I could describe this phenomenon going on in my nephew's blood. The blood cells, though the same basic structure of normal ones, had twice as much room for carrying oxygen, telling me that Edward could probably run for miles and not be out of breath. The bits of bone I scraped up from the Petri dish used to store the broken bone in Edward's shoulder were twice as dense, yet half as heavy, like they were some kind of hollow diamond. No wonder we had had trouble getting the drills into his ribs.

But what I couldn't understand was how he could have possibly been hurt by mere cement and _people_ when his bones were this strong. And then I realized that he had been beaten and tortured for months on end, and that could easily break down whatever was keeping him healthy.

I gave out a shaky laugh, writing down some notes on a notebook I carried with me on my hospital rounds, creating a new section for Edward's peculiar features, and quickly cleaned up everything in the operation room before anyone came back.

"_Never let anyone know…"_

I had a feeling my brother-in-law had meant it.

**A/N: Sorry, guys. I went a bit dark on this story for a while (a BIG homework surge from school: God knows it'll only get worse), and I'm hoping that won't happen again for another couple of months.**

**And, often, when I stop writing on a story, it means that I don't have the time to just sit at the computer and think for hours on end, so I can't come up with ideas. It would be a great help if, when I haven't updated for a while and you're getting impatient, that you give me some ideas.**

**No worries! (hopefully)  
Kylie M. **


	10. Chapter 10

**EPOV**

I had been driving for several hours, getting out of the state, and had soon passed through several. The scenery had changed drastically now; as we neared Phoenix, vegetation became more sparse and less green by the mile.

Bella had fallen asleep two hours ago, the little angel. She hadn't even woken up when I nearly crashed into a semi-truck after watching her for a while on the freeway. Bad idea. Now I just stole the occasional glance.

Jasper's phone rang loudly on the dashboard—but it didn't wake Bella, surprise, surprise. I looked at the caller ID, and smiled when it was someone I recognized and welcomed.

"Hey James. How'd you get the number?" I asked into the phone, putting it to my ear.

"Eddie!" James' low voice yelled quietly in my ear. I laughed. "How's my main man? How's my main moody melodramatic man?"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say _melodramatic_—"

"Shut it. This is my time." James cut me off. "Victoria was has been monitoring the entire thing!"

"The entire thing?"

"Yeah! I mean, what are we supposed to do when our man suddenly disappears after the murder of two suicidal teens' friend?" James asked with a sarcastic tone. "Especially when the murderer gets into a car chase with one of the suicidal teens and you both end up in the hospital! How'd you get out so soon? How'd you cover up your regeneration? How—"

"James. Listen to me." I said seriously. James went deathly quiet so I could hear his held breath. "I'm just on the freeway with Bella—Isabella Swan—on my way to the hideout. Somebody just killed Jasper, and Bella just discovered her powers."

There was a momentary pause before James chuckled. "Wow. Why do you get all the action?"

"James, this is _not_ a laughing—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know. 'Not a laughing matter', 'this controls the fate of the magical world', blah, blah, blah. I know, I know… It's called _melodrama_, but _you_ wouldn't know_ anybody_ like that, _would_ you?"

"Ugh. What a way to get a 'Welcome Back'!" I muttered.

"Because nothing says 'welcome back' like getting your chest sawed open." James shot back. "And just to let you know, Victoria has been monitoring the hospital."

I suddenly went into a fury. "And you didn't care to oversee _Bella?_ Her brother was _murdered_ tonight because nobody was with them!"

"_You're_ our priority, and you know that!" James replied curtly, ignoring the death sentence in my tone. "How are we supposed to know this Bella girl had powers and was one of the Swans? Edward, you can't expect us to know everything."

I groaned, looking at Bella momentarily before letting my eyes travel back to the road. "I'm already entering Glendale; I'll be in Phoenix in less than half an hour. Should I meet you at the—"

"The safe house. We had to keep changing locations, since you disappeared." I knew James could almost see the disapproving look on my face. "Well what were we _supposed_ to think? You're magic—for all we knew, that murderer could've known!"

"Fine, just—fine. What's the address?"

"Just meet us at the intersection of W Mohave St. and S 9th Ave. We'll pick you up from there."

"I'll see you in a few mintues." I was taking the phone down from my ear, ready to hang up, but James said one more thing.

"Hey, it's nice to have you back."

I smiled, but didn't reply. I pressed the end button and sped up, leaving the outskirts of tall skyscrapers of downtown Phoenix behind me. I slowed down to 80 miles an hour, paying attention to the street signs.

_Nice to be back, James._

**JaPOV**

I laughed as I got off the phone with Edward for the first time in months. I mean, hearing and seeing him on the hospital's security cameras was once thing—but on the phone was better. It was better in the way that I could hear plainly in his voice that he had gone to Hell and back to survive. That's my boy.

"Having fun with your best friend?" My Victoria asked from behind the laptop. I tossed the phone next to the laptop on the table and sat down next to her, kissing her cheek.

"Yes." I answered, cupping her neck. "And I'm ecstatic to find out he's finally bringing home a woman."

Victoria's body shook with laughter, jolting me for a second. She leaned into my chest as her euphoria died down and sighed contentedly. "Our little Eddie's growing up."

"They were just out of downtown Phoenix when I got off the phone." I said into Victoria's wild mane of striking red hair. It tickled my cheeks when I dug my face into it, and made me smile. "I'm guessing no more than a few minutes until they get here. We're meeting them at the Harrington storage yard."

"I guess we should get going, then." Victoria whispered. She straightened up, instantly leaving my chest cold, and closed her laptop before putting it into her messenger bag. "You know how Edward is—on time and impeccably precise."

"And annoying." I added jokingly. Victoria laughed and stood up, taking me with her.

"Come on. We have to go meet them." She said insistently. I knew she was just as excited as me for Edward coming back, but she was happier that we were finally adding another woman to the group.

"We don't _have_ to…" I whispered in her ear conspiratorially.

"Yes, we do." She giggled, pulling me to the door.

**EPOV**

Just a few minutes later, I slowed to a stop at the intersection, searching for any signs of life in the suburb area. I would have to get Bella up soon, though. That wouldn't be fun.

It must have been one in the morning by the time I got there. I could see no driving cars, no pedestrians, no signs of life except the rare glittering window or drunken teenager party. The kind Bella, even as I shuddered to think it, should be going to. She shouldn't have to be involved with all this crazy magic stuff, she shouldn't have lost her brother for this cause.

I relaxed in my seat, letting Bella have a few extra minutes of sleep before going through Victoria's chatterbox ways.

Victoria had always been like a sister to me, helping me through the process of discovering and perfecting my magic as I grew up, like James had. She was, unfortunately, my first, awkward, completely wrong and disgusting in every way, kiss. It was just… eww. Not even mentionable. But James had dared me to do it (this was before James and Victoria started dating, or else he would have pummeled me into goo), and he got a good laugh out of it anyway.

Back to Vikki. She was a chatterbox. _Loved_ to talk. And in that, she and James fit together perfectly. I sometimes wondered how I put up with them, my two best friends talking a lot and myself… being the 'silent' type, as Victoria called it. She learned this after setting up dates for me when we were 16 and hearing the unfortunate dates' retells of the night; me glaring out the window, not making any eye contact, and only answering 'yes and no' questions. Vikki was pissed.

In my reminiscing, I completely missed a silver-gray car pulling up across from me, in the entrance of the storage yard. With my sensitive sight, I could see three blinks (one red, one blue, and one green) coming from inside the car. I needed to send an acknowledgement signal, so I quickly grabbed Jasper's phone out of the center console and flipped it open for a millisecond. The driver of the car caught the gesture and slowly did a u-turn back into the storage yard. I followed the car to a large building, parking on the opposite side of it from the other car.

"Bella?" I gently shook her in the passenger seat. She groaned and rolled over, pressing her hair against the cold window, to which action she grudgingly opened her eyes and sat up and stretched.

"Where are we?" Bella asked, her voice laced with sleepiness.

"Phoenix." I replied. "We're meeting some of my friends right now, and you need to come. I don't want you out here alone. If you want, you can go to sleep again when we're where we need to be."

Bella groaned again but reached for the door handle. I was out of the car and by her in a second, though she was still too sleepy to notice. Shyly, I put my hands on her waist to keep her from falling and guided her into the building.

**JPOV**

I groaned, my hands flying to my forehead. Migraine paradise there right now. It sucked. It was like a million different shards of ice pounding their way into my skull—and they were winning. I couldn't even feel my head now, it was so numb, yet hurt so bloody much.

Breathing and groaning again, I stood up, swaying slightly before regaining my balance. Think about the worst hangover you've ever had, multiply that by a hundred, and add no food so it feels like you're going to puke your guts out at the slightest movement. Then, think about that on one cell of your body. And then think about how many cells are in a body…

Point being, it hurt like Hell.

I stumbled to one of the hospital beds (I was still in Edward and Bella's hospital room) and tried to lie down when I was just a few inches away.

I fell flat on my face. I ended up on my already queasy stomach, on the floor, sprawled out _under_ the bed.

And then I began sinking into the floor.

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but at least I gave you guys a late Christmas! I've been starting some courses at MIT, and the work, no matter how little it is in quantity, certainly takes a large amount of thought and time. I swear, I'll spend hours staring at my ceiling, trying to figure out a problem, and the thing that really sucks is that I can't think about _anything_ else in that time period! Apparently, philosophy is more deep than I thought!**


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